5.  The applicant was born in 1975 and lives in Warsaw. He is currently detained in the Warsaw Remand Centre.
6.  On 26 October 2005 the applicant was arrested on suspicion of drug trafficking committed in an organised and armed criminal group.
7.  On 27 October 2005 the Warsaw District Court (Sąd Rejonowy) remanded him in custody, relying on the reasonable suspicion that he had committed the offences in question. It also considered that keeping the applicant in detention was necessary to secure the proper conduct of the proceedings, given the risk that he might induce witnesses to give false testimony. The court also stressed the severity of the anticipated sentence and the complex nature of the case.
8.  Later, twenty-eight members of the same criminal group were detained and charged in connection with the investigation against the applicant.
9.  The applicant's appeal against the detention order, likewise his further appeals against decisions prolonging his detention and all his subsequent, numerous applications for release were unsuccessful.
10. In the course of the investigation, the applicant's detention was prolonged by decisions of the Warsaw Regional Court (Sąd Okregowy) and the Warsaw Court of Appeal (Sąd Apelacyjny) delivered on 12 January, 20 April, 28 August and 24 October 2006, 24 April, 21 August, 8 and 23 October 2007 and 11 and 26 February 2008.
In all their detention decisions the authorities repeatedly relied on a strong suspicion that the applicant had committed the offences in question, which was supported by evidence from witnesses, in particular – by the crown witness's testimony. They underlined the grave nature of those offences and the likelihood of a severe sentence of imprisonment being imposed on the applicant. The courts attached great importance to the complexity of the case, the significant number of persons involved (around 100 persons) and the voluminous documentation gathered in the proceedings. These considerations led the courts to assume that the applicant, if released, could tamper with evidence, induce the witnesses to change their testimonies and obstruct the proper course of the proceedings. The courts stressed, on several occasions, that a number of experts' opinions had to be requested and legal help had to be sought from Sweden and Bulgaria. They found no special grounds, as specified in Article 259 § 1 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, that would justify lifting the detention and imposing a less severe measure.
In its decision of 20 April 2006 the court noted that the prosecutor's arguments for having the applicant's detention extended had been of a very general nature and instructed the prosecutor to provide a detailed list of tasks that still needed to be completed during the investigation if he wished to have the applicant's detention extended further.
11.  On 26 September 2007 a bill of indictment was lodged with the Warsaw Regional Court. There were twenty-nine defendants in the case, charged with, inter alia, numerous counts of drug trafficking and illegal possession of arms, committed in an organised criminal group.
12.  On 25 March 2008 the trial court held the first hearing.
13.  During the court proceedings the authorities further prolonged the applicant's detention pending trial. The applicant's detention was extended by the Warsaw Court of Appeal on 26 June and 4 December 2008 and 18 June and 29 December 2009. The court repeated the grounds previously given for the applicant's detention but underlined, on several occasions, the need to systematically and thoroughly examine whether the applicant's continued detention was justified.
14.  On 22 June 2010 the Warsaw Court of Appeal prolonged the applicant's detention until 31 October 2010.
15.  The proceedings are still pending before the first-instance court.